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Ireland’s Balance of Payments showed a current account surplus of €5.8bn in Quarter 1 (Q1) 2025 (See Table 1.3).
Merchandise exports were €113.1bn in Q1 2025, an increase of €37.5bn compared with Q1 2024. Merchandise imports were €38.9bn in Q1 2025 up €2.4bn compared with the same period in 2024.
Service exports at €115.3bn, grew by €8.0bn compared with Q1 2024. Service imports at €115.6bn were up €23.2bn over the same period in 2024.
The trade balance at €73.8bn, which captures all goods and services exports less all goods and services imports, increased by €19.9bn in Q1 2025 over the same period in 2024.
The overall income balance for Q1 2025 was -€68.0bn, a decrease of €32.0bn compared with the same period in 2024.
Direct investment into Ireland increased by €17.2bn in Q1 2025 while direct investment abroad increased by €13.4bn in the quarter (See Table 1.4).
The stock of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) assets held in Ireland by foreign investors fell by €8.9bn in Q1 2025 to €1,080.3bn. FDI assets held abroad by Irish investors were down by €22.9bn in the quarter to €1,168.6bn (See Table 7.2).
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (08 July 2025) published the International Accounts results for Quarter 1 (Q1) 2025.
Commenting on the release, Gillian Roche, Assistant Director General with responsibility for International and Government Accounts Statistics said:
“In International Accounts results, the Current Account of the Balance of Payments recorded a surplus of €91.0 billion in flows with the rest of the world in 2024, an increase of €54.1 billion compared with the surplus of €36.9 billion in 2023. This was driven to a significant degree by large Intellectual Property (IP) imports in 2023, bringing down the Current Account balance in that year, followed by large IP exports in 2024, bringing up the Current Account balance. The improvement of €18.9 billion in the Merchandise balance between 2023 and 2024 reflects increased International Trade Exports. In comparison, the modified Current Account balance, or CA*, which excludes the impact of re-domiciled companies, aircraft leasing companies and intellectual property products, recorded a surplus of €25.1 billion in the year. Multinational profit net outflows were €129.0 billion in the year, an increase of €9.0 billion on 2023 levels.”
More commentary is available in the Press Release also issued today Press Statement